With continued global and national economic development, more people are choosing to fly than ever before, whether for work or leisure purposes, or to visit family and friends.
Sydney Airport acknowledges that noise from aircraft operations continues to a significant environmental issue for people living around airports or underneath or near flight paths.
While the noise generated by next generation quieter aircraft types like the A380 and B787 “Dreamliner” is much less than the noise generated by older aircraft types, it is the increasing number of flights that concerns many in the community.
Recent research in the field of aircraft noise management and related levels of community annoyance, have identified the following contributing factors:
- Socio-economic and lifestyle expectations in relation to the environment
- Equitable sharing of actual and perceived negative impacts of aircraft noise
- Subconscious fear of aircraft accidents
- Feelings of loss of control, stress and poor psychological health
- Providing a focal point for other real or perceived negative aspects of airport development.
There is evidence that these types of non-acoustic factors may be as important as the noise exposure level in determining reported annoyance. Some of these factors are mapped in the diagram above.
It is vital that airports work with their local communities proactively managing noise generated from aircraft arrivals and departures and communicating in an open and transparent way about the impact of airport operations. This has been shown to be important in reducing community concerns and achieving acceptance and tolerance of the airport as air traffic grows.
Sydney Airport and its aviation industry partners are striving to achieve this through the initiatives described in the following sections.
Previous
